Jazz/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life starring Tim & Moby Tim is reading a newspaper in a kitchen. Moby enters carrying a robot called Jazz-bot that is made out of musical instruments: piano teeth, cello body, trumpet arm, and saxophone arm. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You built a musical robot? Cool, can it play the new Fall Out Boy (One Direction in the update) song? JAZZ-BOT: Blap. A raspberry shoots out of Jazz-bot's mouth. TIM: How about something by Avril Lavigne (Taylor Swift in the remake)? Jazz-bot makes a raspberry sound. MOBY: Beep. Moby shrugs. TIM: What do you mean that music isn't sophisticated enough? Jazz-bot plays a jazz melody line on his saxophone. TIM: Oh, it's a jazz-bot. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, What is jazz? From, Katie. Well, jazz is kind of hard to define. But with the help of Moby's little musical friend here, we can give you a quick introduction to the basics. Jazz originated in New Orleans, Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. A map of the United States shows New Orleans, Louisiana. TIM: It was played mainly by African American musicians who combined several musical styles to create something totally new. They started out with a syncopated beat. An image shows a drummer with Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz-Band written on his bass drum and three other musicians playing instruments. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Syncopation is when a musician changes around the natural rhythm of a piece of music. In syncopation, beats that are normally unstressed are emphasized. An image shows bars of music with some notes lighting up. TIM: It's easy to understand when you listen to it. Hey Jazz-bot, can you play, Mary Had a Little Lamb? Jazz-bot plays a drum rhythm and the melody for Mary Had a Little Lamb. TIM: Now can you play it with a syncopated rhythm? Jazz-bot plays the same song with a syncopated rhythm, making some notes longer and others shorter than in the original melody. Moby snaps his fingers. TIM: Hear the difference? That's syncopation. Jazz also borrowed from the blues, the traditional folk music of African-Americans in the south. Blues is played with a unique musical scale that relies on blue notes, notes that are slightly lower pitched than they would be on a major scale. An image shows a man playing a guitar, with musical notes next to him labeled as blue notes. TIM: Hey Jazz-bot, can you play a blues scale? Jazz-bot plays a blues scale. TIM: Hear those blue notes? The early jazz pioneers borrowed this scale from the blues! Syncopation and the blues both came from African musical traditions, but jazz borrowed from European music, too. Jazz musicians often play the same instruments as classical musicians including the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, saxophone, and double bass. An image shows jazz musicians in silhouette. They are illuminated one at a time, showing their different instruments as Tim names them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the real key to jazz is improvisation. That's when musicians make up what they're playing while they're playing it! Usually, they'll start by playing a simple melody or phrase. Then, they'll play different variations, on it going wherever the music takes them. An animation shows a woman playing a saxophone in the different ways Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: So basically, you can say that jazz is a type of music that includes syncopated rhythms and blue notes, and is based on improvisation. But that's only half the story. Jazz has changed and evolved a lot over the years. The traditional type of jazz that first came out of New Orleans is often called Dixieland. It peaked during the 1920s when Louis Armstrong was recording with his bands, The Hot Five and the Hot Seven. An animation shows Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. TIM: In the 1930s, the most popular form of jazz was swing, which featured big bands and a strong rhythmic beat. An animation shows a pair of swing dancers. A band is shown in silhouette behind the dancers. TIM: Band leaders at that time included Count Basie and Benny Goodman. An image shows Count Basie playing piano and Benny Goodman playing clarinet. TIM: During this time, jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald became famous by singing popular songs in a unique, jazzy way. Fitzgerald was famous for scat singing, improvising complicated vocal solos by singing nonsense syllables! An image shows Ella Fitzgerald singing. MOBY: Beep. Jazz-bot scat sings. TIM: In the 1940s, musicians like saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, developed a new form of jazz called bebop. It was way faster and more complex than earlier forms of jazz. An image shows Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. TIM: Jazz was the dominant form of American popular music from the 1920s all the way through World War II. An image of a soldier playing a trumpet is shown in silhouette, then in color. TIM: Since then, musicians and composers have developed many different varieties of jazz. Often they combined jazz with other musical genres. There's Latin jazz, free jazz, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, acid jazz, jazz folk, you name it. Anyway, that's the story of jazz. Tim turns to Jazz-bot in the kitchen. TIM: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to download some disposable pop music. As Tim turns away, Jazz-bot shoots a beam at him which freezes Tim in his tracks. TIM: What? Grunt, urgh, can't move! You'll pay for this, Jazz-bot. Jazz-bot scat sings as his image fades out. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Arts & Music Transcripts